Lack of cuddles in infancy may affect development of brain

[MountainLaurel]

Interesting stuff that confirms prior research on brain development in infants. And in light of the thread on James Dobson and other KKKristian parenting experts, relevant to American society at present.



Depriving young children of cuddles and attention subtly changes how their brains develop and in later life can leave them anxious and poor at forming relationships, according to a study published today. Love and affection from parents and carers are vital to developing brain pathways associated with handling stress and forming social bonds, the researchers found.

Seth Pollak, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, and colleagues compared the progress of children being raised by their biological parents in America with children who had come from crowded orphanages in Russia and Romania and had been adopted by American parents.

"When these children were babies there were so few adults around that there was rarely one available to respond to their needs," said Dr Pollak.

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Before and after this physical contact, the children provided a urine sample to measure levels of two hormones: vasopressin, thought to help us recognise familiar individuals and live in social groups; and oxytocin, the release of which makes us feel secure and protected, and lowers our stress level.

Children from orphanages had lower baseline levels of vasopressin and, unlike children raised by their biological parents, their levels of oxytocin did not rise with cuddling. The study appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,1647932,00.html?gusrc=rss